New Delhi, Feb. 19: The health ministry has procured 50,000 courses of the anti-viral drug oseltamivir and plans to double its stockpile within the next few weeks, officials said today.

Oseltamivir (commercially known as Tamiflu) has been shown to reduce the severity and duration of the avian influenza H5N1 infection, provided it is given early during the infection. However, health officials stressed that this stockpile was only part of preparedness efforts.

Amid public concerns over the consumption of poultry products, the officials also emphasised that chicken and eggs can be safely eaten outside the infected zone around Navapur as long as they are cooked properly. “We’re still eating chicken,” a senior health official said.

The H5N1 virus is sensitive to heat and normal temperatures used for cooking ? 70 degrees C ? in all parts of the food will kill the virus. However, consumers need to be sure that all parts of the poultry are fully cooked.

In other words, no pink parts in chicken, and no runny egg yolks.

Oseltamivir is being used currently as part of the protective cover to veterinary staff engaged in culling and to medical investigators in the infected zone. But in the event that a human case of H5N1 influenza is detected sometime in the future, the drug would be required not just for the patient but also for the patient’s close contacts and medical staff involved in treating the patient, the officials said.

“We’re certainly not at that point yet,” an official said. The government is procuring the drug from the manufacturer at a price of Rs 745 for a pack of 10 tablets that typically represents one course of the medication, an official said.

It has also asked manufacturers to consider providing a syrup-based medication that could be given to children if the need arose.

The multinational Roche is the global supplier of oseltamivir. However, in December 2005, Roche granted a licence to the Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs to produce oseltamivir for India and other developing countries.

The health ministry has sent 9,000 doses of oseltamivir to Maharashtra and 2,000 doses to Gujarat which shares a border with the infected zone.

The officials said it would be up to the treating doctors to decide whether a patient requires oseltamivir.

Although six people who had diseased poultry in their backyards in Navapur now appear to have respiratory infections and mild fever, none of these six has pneumonia ? a key symptom of the H5N1 infection.